"Scope Creep"

Scope Creep Bar Code Label Monster

Matching people and personalities, allocating budgets appropriately, picking the right facility, gathering resources and paying people is crucial to the success of a project (Portny, et al., 2008).  Also important to a project is trying to maintain scope creep which is almost inevitable in a project.  I recall being asked to assist our technology department in tagging iPad and iPod carts and 2Know Response Systems to prepare them to go out to the schools within the district.  At the time I was not aware of a lot of things I realized after the process was complete.  The scope creep that occurred in this scenario came in the form of “barcodes” and “labels”.

Because I was not aware of the power of a scanner and the person I was working with obviously was not either we took more time than we should have to complete this task.  We were thinking we only

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deadlinesandducttape.com

needed to tag some equipment however we also needed to create the labels to tag the equipment.  After creating the labels then we were suppose to tag them, which we thought was the original task.  At the time the way we dealt with the project was our team of two literally typed in the serial numbers in excel for each piece of equipment; 100 iPads, 100 iPods and 100 response systems.  I created a bar code in the system that our media centers use for “scanning in books” to make the bar codes for the district numbers to track with the serial numbers of the equipment.  This project that could have taken perhaps a day or two took a week.

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The director of the department asked us after the second day what was taking so long.  Of course we told her that we had to type in all the serial numbers and the labels she provided were old and were not sticking properly to the iPad and 2Know response systems.  In addition, she must have forgotten that our original task was to only tag equipment and not create the tags.  Only after we were almost finished did she tell us that she had a scanner we could use to scan in each serial number and bar code that we created.  She ended up paying us more for overtime (which increased the budget she had for the job) and she ended up purchasing better labels that would actually stick to the material of the equipment provided.

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Looking back on the experience had I been in the position to manage the project I would have given better instruction to the people who were going to perform the task.  I would have told them that this can be completed quickly with the use of a scanner and to use clear labels to cover the printed bar codes or print the bar codes directly on the clear labels.  I would have given instruction and guidance on the project so that it could have been completed more efficiently.  By providing the proper resources to complete the task the scope creep that came about could have been avoided.  The task could have been completed in a timely manner.  Needless to say we were called back to the district to repeat this task months later and the first thing I asked for was the bar code scanner.  I would not be outdone a second time.  Guiding a project from beginning to end and including the three basic operations of planning, organizing and controlling are essential to an effective outcome (Portny, et al., 2008).

Dr. Troy Achong made a very valid statement in Practitioner Voices:  Overcoming Scope Creep that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” (Laureate Education, nd.).  Dr. Patti Van Rekom stated that scope creep is inevitable and time and money should be built into a project ahead of time to deal with it (Laureate Education, nd.).  The next project was completed in one day and funds were saved because of planning, organizing and providing the right resources to complete the task.

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References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Practitioner voices: Overcoming scope creep [DVD].

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., & Sutton, M. M. (2008).  Project Management:  Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects.  Hoboken, NJ:  John Wiley & Sons.

Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

The first resource I found that would be useful in estimating the costs, effort and/or activity durations associated with ID projects was Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition blog.  This blog gives a plethora of information on estimating costs and time in instructional design.  Literature is given and interactive templates to calculate budgeting for any area of developing a project is provided on this site. In addition to all of this information the site also gives information on brain storming, agile learning design, blended learning, books, cognition, design and development.   Dr. Achong stated in Practitioner Voices:  Resource Challenges that IDs must think of all the projects that will suck up your time that have nothing to do with the project at hand (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.).  Just at Dr. Stolovich stated in Creating a Resource Allocation, IDs should create a contingency budget of 20% that no one knows about.  The form in the tools section of this blog made room for “other” which can be the contingency funds.

Once you click on the link scroll to the end of the blog page to “Tools” and click on the link provided.  This interactive tool was very easy to use because the template is already set up and calculates the data you enter.  Some adjustments may have to be made in column C to make it specific to your particular project.  Remember to click on the other pages at the bottom of the excel spreadsheet to create your training estimates and notes.  This is a great tool and it is very easy to use.

Picture Credit - Picture Credit - http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html

The second resource I found is from Ridge View Media, Cook, J. (2010), How to Estimate Training Time and Costs.  This site was a bit different from the previous site I chose.  I did not find interactive information where I could input my data to make the budgeting chart or timeline my own.  Although there are several links from this site to other sites that give valuable information on estimating time and costs with different projects.  This site can be used mainly for informational purposes.  Although very interesting blog posts I would use this site to create the planning phase of a project.   

Picture Credit - http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/05/how-to-estimate-trainingtime-and-costs/

The most helpful information I found on the sites were very different.  In the first site, Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design I found the interactive tools to be the most helpful especially for the upcoming project that is due.  The most helpful piece to the second site, How to Estimate Training Time and Costs, was all the information from various different professionals on how to estimate costs and time when planning for a project.  One gave interactive tools and the other gave information which I can use in the future to estimate and allocate costs in instructional design.  What I have found most challenging about estimating activity durations and resources costs is the amount of time it takes to do such a tedious task.  Trying to make sure you have enough time and funds allocated for the tasks at hand is more difficult than I thought and it has become a bit overwhelming.  While project budgets will always have an element of uncertainty, project managers can prepare for common types of change and revise budgets accordingly (Portny, et al., 2008).

Picture Credit

bwalker2.blogspot.com

References

Clark, D. (2010). Estimating costs and time in instructional design.  Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html.

Cook, J. (2010).  How to estimate training time and costs.  Retrieved from http://ridgeviewmedia.com/blog/2010/05/how-to-estimate-trainingtime-and-costs/.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Creating a resource allocation [Video webcast].

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Practitioner voices: Resource challenges [Video webcast].

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.